Snowboarding has become increasingly popular in the last decade. The binding that holds the rider's feet onto the board plays an important role in ensuring safety, comfort and maneuverability.
The most popular conventional soft bindings for snowboarding use a two-strap system in which the boot of the rider is placed on a plate that is fastened to the snowboard, and held in place by a first strap that is fastened over the toes and a second strap that is fastened over the instep. This type of system suffers the drawback that the heel-cradling element either is not longitudinally adjustable or, if it is, it is not easy to adjust.
Attempts have been made to make snowboard bindings have “step-in” characteristics that are common in downhill ski bindings. For example, a common “step-in” system uses a base plate having a clipping mechanism, which can lock on a corresponding mechanism fixed on the sole of the boot. This type of “step-in” suffers the drawback that a particular binding can only be used with a corresponding boot since the mechanism on the binding must mate with the mechanism on the boot. In addition, because the attachment to the board is over a smaller area, and the outsole of the boot includes part of the coupling mechanism and no strap supports pass over the boot, the boot must be made rigid over some portions, to provide support to the foot and ankle. This renders the boot less comfortable. Rigid boots are also less popular because the snowboard piloting is less precise.
Another type of “step-in” system has been proposed, that attempts to combine the convenience of step-in systems with the control levels attainable with two-straps, called the “BACK-IN” system. An example is the Flow/K2 binding system that has similarities to a two-strap binding, except that the boot enters the binding through the back (which then clips into place) rather than the top. The rider's boot is held down by a single webbing that covers most of the boot and is held on by straps. The BACK-IN binding suffers the drawback that the rigidity is increased because of the rigidity of the high back, and the overall feeling and pressure repartition over the boot is rougher compared to a conventional soft two-strap binding.
The above-mentioned two-strap type of binding for receiving soft boots is thus preferred, but their arrangements for allowing longitudinal adjustment of the position of the cradling element on the base plate are unsatisfactory. Due to design considerations, fixing screws are conventionally situated in a horizontal plane and are accessible laterally. It is frequently necessary to remove the screws from their counter-support, but this manipulation is non-ergonomic and leads frequently to the loss of the screw elements. Moreover, with the conventional adjustment system, the fixing screws transmit forces mainly by shearing and this leads to a loss of the precision of adjustment especially for all-polymer binding structures where the distance between two fixed positions (e.g. the distance between two holes) depends principally on resistance criteria. The conventional system thus, does not allow a fine adjustment according to the different boot sizes and the different boot-size norms. Nor do the existing systems achieve a fully satisfactory envelope corresponding to anatomic requirements for fitting different feet/boots.
The following disclosures may be relevant to various aspects of the present invention and may be briefly summarized as follows:
U.S. Patent Application Number 2004/0169350 describes a rear-entry snowboard binding in which the base plate has projecting side plates supporting two independent elements on which a separate heel is pivoted, allowing rear entry to the binding. This specifically rear-entry binding allows longitudinal adjustment by cooperating serrations, but is complicated due to the multiple parts and their connections, and the rear part of the structure is not designed to support tensions of the magnitude and direction produced by the instep-strapping arrangement of a two-strap binding. Hence, its teaching is not applicable to bindings of the two-strap type.
It is desirable for an embodiment of the present invention to allow longitudinal adjustment of the position of the cradling element on the base plate. It is further desirable that an embodiment of the present invention provide a binding that is simple and convenient to adjust and of simple and robust construction.